The Hunger
1983 David Bowie
Life is the last great adventure and its secret has eluded man since the beginning of time. He may not know from where he comes or why but of one thing he is certain: man would like to prolong his stay on earth, preferably maintaining the full flush of youth.
Pursuing this ambition in literature where all things are possible, man has resolved the elusive problem but with a perverse puritanism has rarely allowed the discovery to bring great happiness or lasting joy. It is as if the very possession of this ultimate knowledge demands a tribute of equal dimension.
Dr. Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil for 24 years of life, saw his dream founder on the reality on the face of Helen of Troy, similarly the inhabitants of James Hilton's Shangri-La in "The Lost Horizon" could not venture beyond the borders of their small world without sacrificing youth and beauty.
In "The Hunger," Miriam, who is not quite of this world, possesses the great secret but too
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finds it does not bring lasting happiness. A beautiful and desirable creature, her life is a constant search for love and freedom from persecution. Yet her need to feed "The Hunger" draws both man and woman into her web and descent to a nightmare of erotic decadence and corruption.
"The Hunger," a Richard Shepherd Company Production for MGM directed by Tony Scott from a screenplay by Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas, stars Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon with Cliff DeYoung. A startling excursion into the contemporary world of the macabre, "The Hunger," marks the return of producer Richard Shepherd to independent production.
"The Hunger," is not horror in the gothic tradition, nor fiction of the future, but, a frightening story where perfection and beauty are an illusion barely concealing a corrupt and decadent existence, and where the ancient symbol of life, the ankh, becomes an instrument of death.
"The Hunger," is a mood, a look, an ambience created by Tony Scott, the director. It is the lighting of Stephen Goldblatt, it is the production design of Brian Morris, it is the clothes created by Milena Canonero.
These talents combine to move the actors through a landscape of alien emotion to act out a story remote from their own experience concerning a creature, not of this world, whose existence, while opposed to the human condition, is akin to man's ultimate desire. . .eternal life.
There is a sadness and a melancholy and a pervading sexuality surrounding the characters. This sensual aura is at variance with the normal and to be drawn into their world is to view life through a cracked mirror where a thousand distorted images scatter backwards in time.
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